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The leaves are turning, the streets are cooling—and most of the tourists have gone back to work, and school. In other words, now is the perfect time to visit New York City. And while most visitors spend the majority of their time in Manhattan, many forget that the Big Apple includes five boroughs.

Here’s a guide to spending a bit of your autumn in the other four, where hotels tend to be less expensive and you can feel like you’ve discovered some of the sites, for yourself.

New York City: Autumn in the BoroughsBack to video

Borough: Brooklyn

A little history

While it won’t look too swampy, now, Brooklyn’s name comes from the Dutch word, brueckelen, which means “marshland.” Just across the East River from Manhattan, you can walk here by going across the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. If each borough was considered a separate city, Brooklyn, with about 2.5 million residents, would be the country’s third-largest, after Los Angeles and Chicago.

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DUMBO: An acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, this neighbourhood, once (and still, to some extent) an enclave for artists, was given its goofy name from local residents, looking to keep real estate prices low. It’s still home to massive murals as well as galleries, chocolate shops and, arguably (because these things are always subject to hot debate), the city’s best pizza. Grimaldi’s, located right under the bridge, cooks their pies in a coal-brick oven, and line-ups can stretch around the corner (hours, in the summer, but notably a little less in autumn).

Room with a view: Looking back across the water, the William Vale, a hotel in the chic Williamsburg neighbourhood, features some of the very best 180-degree views of the Manhattan skyline, from one of their Gotham Suites, or Westlight, the hotel’s 22nd-floor rooftop bar. Grab a drink, watch the sun set into the East, then pull on a jacket and head out to one of the coolest restaurants in the city, just a few blocks away, including Diner, a pioneer in farm-to-table, tip-to-tail cuisine.

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Borough: Queens

Next to Brooklyn on the near-end of Long Island, this borough was named for Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese-born, English queen—wife of King Charles II. It’s one of the most ethnically diverse places in the country, with almost half of residents hailing from outside the United States.

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Flushing Meadows-Corona Park: Home to both the 1939 and 1964 world’s fairs, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (which hosts the US Open), and the setting for the opening credits on King of Queens, this 900-acre park includes a river, two lakes, and some of the city’s best, lesser-known attractions. See the changing colours on the trees around the Unisphere, then check out the Queens Museum of Art, Queens Theatre in the Park and the Queens Zoo—all right here, on site.

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Museum of the Moving Image: This is a great place to spend those inevitable rainy days, with more than 100,000 items their collection, ranging from artefacts, from classic cinema to exhibitions on modern gaming. They also screen as many as 100 carefully curated films, each year.

Borough: The Bronx

A little history

The northernmost borough, separated from Manhattan by the Harlem River, the Bronx was named for the area’s first farmer, a 17th-century Swedish immigrant named Jonas Bronck. And apparently, the definite article in “the Bronx” comes from the fact that the borough took its name from a small river of the same name (just like people refer to “the Mississippi,” or “the St. Lawrence.”)

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Don’t miss these two things

Yankee Stadium: Home to the Bronx Bombers, and built a decade ago for $2 billion, attending a game in the home of baseball’s most storied franchise (27 World Series titles, and counting) is an experience you won’t soon forget—especially if, like this year, they’re in the playoffs and headed for the Fall Classic. But even when the pinstripes are eliminated from competition, you can still take a tour here—running all year, the one-hour circuit includes Monument Park, the dugout and, often, a little walk along the edge of the field.

Bronx Zoo: The namesake legend of the borough, come to visit some 600 species of animals, from the big cats of the African plains to the unique fauna of Madagascar to the Himalayas, and beyond. Plan your visit to include a public feeding—penguins, sea lions and other animals are trained and fed at scheduled times, throughout the day.

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Borough: Staten Island

Staten Island Ferry, Staten Island, NYCCourtesy NYC & Co

A little history

Home to almost half a million people, this is the only borough not connected to the rest by subway (it’s sometimes known as “the forgotten borough”). The first place settled by the Dutch (that is, the original New Amsterdam), they named it after their national parliament, the Staten-Generaal.

Don’t miss these two things

Staten Island Ferry: The cliché is true—getting there is half the fun. Running for a little less than half an hour from the southernmost tip of Manhattan near Battery Park, across New York Harbor, this big yellow boat operates free-of-charge, 24/7 and crosses right at the feet of the Statue of Liberty.

National Lighthouse Museum: Located on an island, this makes sense. Located in the former general depot of the United States Lighthouse Service, come here to check out 180 models from more than half the states. Or even better—buy a ticket for a boat tour that will take you to some fine, local, real-world examples.

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